Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT135 S4 Q5 Explanation

Judge: The case before me

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsPrinciple-Strengthen

Keep going in LSAT Lab

  • Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Start practicing free

Free to start

Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Stimulus

Judge: The case before me involves a plaintiff and three codefendants. The plaintiff has applied to the court for an order permitting her to question each defendant without their codefendants or their codefendants' legal counsel being present. Two of the codefendants, however, share the same legal counsel. The court will Therefore, the order requested by the plaintiff cannot be granted.

What this question is testing

Principle-Strengthen

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
5.

The conclusion of the judge's argument is most strongly supported if which one of the following principles is

Answer choices

  1. Out of Scope: "disclose info revealed"7% picked this

    A court cannot issue an order that forces legal counsel to disclose information revealed

    This answer doesn't rule out our remaining wiggle room (couldn't these codefendants just have no lawyer present) and it brings up a brand new concept of forcing lawyers to disclose info their clients have revealed.

  2. Correct83% picked this

    Defendants have the right to have their legal counsel present when

    Why this is right

    If everyone has the right to have their lawyer present, and two people have the same lawyer, and we're not making anyone get new lawyers, then there's no way for me to question one of those two people while kicking out all codefendants and codefendants' lawyers.

    Skill tested: Principle-Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

  3. Out of Scope1% picked this

    People being questioned in legal proceedings may refuse to answer questions

    Thanks for bringing up the 5th Amendment to the Constitution choice (C). Whether or not people being questioned have to answer questions that are self-incriminating has nothing to do with our focus ... whether or not it's possible to question one of these codefendants without any other codefendants or their lawyers being present.

  4. Unclear Impact7% picked this

    A plaintiff in a legal case should never be granted a right that is denied

    This rule would only be useful to us if knew whether or not the stuff the plaintiff is requesting has been denied to the defendants. We have no information about whether the defendants will be able to question the plaintiff without her co-plaintiffs or their lawyers present.

  5. Out of Scope1% picked this

    A defendant's legal counsel has the right to question

    We're only concerned with whether or not the plaintiff will be granted a certain thing. We don't really care what rights / allowances the defendant is receiving, other than whether they have a right to have their counsel present (since that the only possible way to grant the plaintiff's request would hinge on questioning two of the codefendants without their counsel present)

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill
LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free